Voltaire

The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.

Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.

The easy confidence with which I know another man’s religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.

No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with no past at my back.

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.

I know of no such unquestionable badge and ensign of a sovereign mind as that of tenacity of purpose.

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

It always seems impossible until its done.

Covetousness is the greatest of monsters, as well as the root of all evil.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

I simply want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself.

He is now rising from affluence to poverty.

Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head that I do not love you; you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love and my esteem; I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety.

I’m just preparing my impromptu remarks.

It is not best that we should all think alike; it is a difference of opinion that makes horse races.

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

To do something, say something, see something, before anybody else – these are things that confer a pleasure compared with which other pleasures are tame and commonplace, other ecstasies cheap and trivial.